Mayor happy to revisit Port’s skate park issues

It comes after the Port News reported that a number of
local young people believed the council were not paying attention to youth
issues, by putting discussions of lighting at the Town Beach
skate park on the back-burner.

But Cr Besseling argued councillors had been given an
insufficient amount of time to respond to emails, and he had personally replied
to the email of concerned resident, Beau Nestor.

“I find it unusual that skaters say council don’t care
when they’re skating on a $800,000 skate park,” he said.

“Council has limited access to funding and despite
this fact, was successful in accessing $400,000 of federal funding and matched
that with $400,000 of local ratepayers money, to build a state-of-the-art skate
park in Port Macquarie.”

He said the skate park was ample proof that council
did in fact listen to the youth, by utilising a professional to create the best
possible facility.

Cr Besseling said council were open to communicate
with all members of the community.

Before any open discussion could occur he would need
to consult with council’s Crime Prevention Officer Christine Bannister and seek
further advice on the safety issues lighting the park would present, he said.

“The advice is that it would create a security issue
down there,” Cr Besseling said. “I am happy to revisit that advice and gather
further information.”

Tim Bishop, host of 2WAYFM’s Time to Talk Show, has
for weeks been engaging with local youth and council representatives to bring
light to the issue.

He said Cr Besseling’s failure to back the youth of
Port Macquarie by supporting the light installation was an “embarrassing
disgrace”.

Mr Bishop said Mr Besseling had failed at the
opportunity to “prove himself as a progressive leader at a local level”.

“We have more than a thousand young people actually
engaging in democracy at a local level, crying out for lights and signing
petitions,” Mr Bishop said.

“Yet their Mayor, a man who is supposed to represent
their views the most, hasn’t even offered to sit with them to hear what they
have to say.”

Mr Bishop also challenged council’s suggestion that
lighting would be inappropriate as a crime prevention strategy, urging them to
provide evidence to support their claims.

“He says lights will attract anti-social behaviour yet
my research of other lit skate parks across the country suggests lighting is
highly successful,” Mr Bishop said.

Cr Besseling said it was unfortunate that anyone could
consider the skate park an embarrassing failure.

Everyone has an opportunity to put forward what they
think should form the priority projects for council via the consultation
process currently underway www.pmhclistening.com.au /hastingshorizons and I
would encourage Mr Bishop to participate.